DETROIT >> Blaine Hardy’s cell phone has been blowing up for most of the night, with messages of congratulations on his call-up to the big leagues.

One meant the most, though.

“My dad sent me a text saying ‘Best Father’s Day gift ever.’ It’s definitely an awesome experience already,” Hardy said Sunday morning, when he could hardly take two minutes for a TV interview without his phone going off again.

His father, Dave, managed to get a flight in from Phoenix on next to no notice Saturday night, after Hardy learned the news of his promotion.

“It’s awesome. I really did not think he’d be able to make it here for Father’s Day and he said he wanted to. I was looking at flights, and before I could pull up a page, he sent me a text saying ‘I got a flight.’ I was like, oh, wow. OK,” Hardy said.

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“Having him here today is going to be amazing.”

It’s been a long time coming for both men.

The 27-year-old Hardy was released by Kansas City — the organization that drafted him in the 22nd round in 2008 — prior to last season, and he hooked on with the Tigers on a minor-league deal.

“New organization, it’s always a fresh start. Being a little older, obviously the clock was ticking,” Hardy admitted. “Started off really good, just kept pitching, and everything turned out quite well. ... You gotta stick with it, and that’s exactly what I tried to do. Just keep playing, hopefully get the opportunity, and here I am.”

It helped that the pitch that now tops his repertoire — his curveball, a weapon against left-handed hitters — was just starting to morph into form when he left the Kansas City organization.

“The funny thing is, I never really threw a curveball until my last couple years with Kansas City, and it was an average pitch,” Hardy said.

“I was a slider guy, and the Royals saw something, said ‘Hey, we want you to try to throw a curveball.’ It slowly kept getting better and better and better. Eventually when I got over to the Tigers, something just clicked, and it ended up being my go-to pitch now.”

It also helped that the Tigers, whose bullpen has been in flux all season, needed someone who could go multiple innings. The man sent down to make room for Hardy, former first-round pick Corey Knebel, could go two innings at most. Hardy, who joined the Toledo rotation after struggling in the bullpen to start this season, is stretched out enough that he could go up to five, if need be.

“So it adds length to your bullpen,” manager Brad Ausmus said of the addition of a third left-hander to the pen, to go with Phil Coke and Ian Krol. “It probably allows us to use Coke against a lefty earlier, because Cokey’s been kind of the guy we’d go to, two, three (innings), if necessary.”

Hardy had a golf date with Toledo Mud Hens manager Larry Parrish on Tuesday. Instead, he’ll have to live with a series against his old organization.

“The first thing he said was ... ‘Were you planning on golfing Tuesday?’ Yeah. He’s like ‘Not anymore. You’re going up. Sorry to say I won’t be golfing with you,’” Hardy recalled.